Harry Connick, Jr.

What a fun Mardi Gras I just had! For whatever reason, instead of partying in his home of New Orleans, Harry Connick, Jr. was on tour and in Durham! Worked 8-4, let the dogs out, then headed over for dinner at Tyler's and then the show at the Durham Performing Arts Center. It was a LOT of fun! Between the Saints winning the Super Bowl recently and Mardi Gras happening, he was in a REALLY good mood. Some of the lovey dovey songs (which he mentioned might make those not in love "a little awkward") were a little awkward for me. But other than those two songs out of the 2-hour show, it was FUN!!!

Sadly, I don't have any video or photos from the show. I was too close to the aisle and the DPAC camera gestapo. But here's a fun toe-tapping number I found online that brings me right back to Durham and last Tuesday's show:

Tori Amos at the Durham Performing Arts Center

Headed over to Durham tonight for a Tori Amos concert. 8th row center. And I mean CENTER. As in, Tori's piano bench was right in front of me, separated by a mere 8 rows of seats. Nice.

She made a point to mention it was good to be back home. She was born in NC. Granted she moved away when she was 2 but she was born in NC nonetheless.

Maybe it's something about a hottie on the piano (Tori Amos, Amanda Palmer,...) that gets my blood rolling. But tonight's concert found me leaning forward in my seat with mouth agape and just awestruck. Mesmerized. Intoxicated. Dare I say, enchanted.

A pixie, a faery on the keyboards. She waltzed in with a blue dress and shiny metallic silver leggings and that hair. That long red hair. That awesome long red hair. Beautiful. Looking damn good for 46.

Here's the setlist from tonight's show:

Give
Beauty of Speed
Cornflake Girl
Starling
Black Dove (January)
Glory of the '80s
Pandora’s Aquarium
Marys of the Seas
1,000 Oceans
Landslide
Upside Down
Lady in Blue
Bliss
Police Me
Precious Things
Strong Black Vine
-----
Body and Soul
Big Wheel

Just her on piano and organ and keyboards, Matt Chamberlain on drums, and Jon Evans on bass. Three performers producing a big, big sound. Loved it. A good time.

Busy 4th of July weekend

My 3-day weekend off was a indeed busy one. "Columbus Chris" / "The Other Chris" / "C-Mar" paid a visit to NC from the cooler northern climes of Dublin, OH. Our docket was a busy one.

Thursday night after he arrived we went downtown and hit up Natty Greene's for a late dinner. Thirsty Thursday so it was PACKED. Ran into fellow beer nerds Jeff, Turtle, and Dale while there. C-Mar is in NC now, so the BBQ sandwich was ordered up. Good stuff.

Friday morning, we got up and went on the Beer Hunt to end all beer hunts to satiate the central Ohio beer club the HobSnobbery crew. Harris Teeter at Friendly Center for some (hell, I mean ALL) Natty Greene's varieties and some local BBQ sauce. Then it was 1950's era Bestway grocery on Walker Ave. If you're local and love craft beer and you haven't been, you NEED to go. Seriously. Next was Total Wine & More for some Saranac pop ("soda") and other single bottles. Then finally late at night it was Sam's in Durham to round out the NC offerings. City Beverage in Winston-Salem was left off the itinerary due to automobile spatial needs (we seriously bought THAT much), monetary requirements, and frankly we got quite a hefty NC haul without that gem of a store 30 minutes to the west. Whew. Can't wait to hear about the huge ass tasting that will occur with the southern brews in Columbus.

Friday night in the midst of the beer shopping, we took in a game in Durham. First, we hit up the Mellow Mushroom in the American Tobacco Complex for some pretzels, pizza, and Lagunitas IPA. Delicious. We had no tickets for the game. We tried online earlier in the day, but their server was down to buy lawn seats for the Charlotte Knights @ Durham Bulls game, the only seats left for this busy fireworks-entailed pre-holiday game. So we walk up to the ticket booth and I ask for best available, fully expecting to just buy lawn seats and then stand and roam the park. "Well, we have lawn seats, and....an unsold suite tonight for $25 each."

Um, what?

So, to fully entertain my guest, we sat in a suite. Great views, even with zero chance of a foul ball. Sweet. The only downer was I specifically asked if we'd be able to see the fireworks OK. We were assured, but when it came down to it, we saw the bottom third of the higher explosions. Crap. Still, we saw two Bulls home runs, so the Bull lit up and smoked. Plus, the Bulls won, so the victory resulted in more famous Bull animatronics.

The Bull responds to a home run:

Saturday morning, on July 4th, we visited Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, our very own federal national park within the city commemorating the events of March 15, 1781. Happily, there were cars EVERYWHERE. A busy day for the history buffs. We took the driving audio tour (I shockingly own the tour CD already) and hit up all 8 stops on this Independence Day.

A great tour. Plenty of photos. C-Mar was hoping for a Civil War site, but Revolutionary War was all I could offer locally. Nevertheless he enjoyed it. Granted not as much as I did, but I'm a colonial history geek that way.

And this video below gives me the shivers every time I watch it. Too, too cool!

After Guilford Courthouse, it was time for more minor league baseball. The Cleveland Indians Low-A South Atlantic League team, the Lake County Captains, were in town to combat the Greensboro Grasshoppers, the point of C-Mar's visit. I always try to catch Cleveland's minor league teams when they come around here (and they do quite often), and to have Lake County play here on July 4th made it all the sweeter. The Gallers and Kimberly came over to meet me and C-Mar for a cookout: ribs on the grill, corn on the grill, potato salad, beans, the works. Good eatin' before the game!

So we make our way the 10 minutes to the park and enjoy another good minor league game. And to top it off, C-Mar catches his FIRST FOUL BALL! I got my first 2 weeks prior, and he gets his on July 4th of all days! COOL! A good time, a Captains victory, and more fireworks.

It was GREAT to have a guest. We had a really good time. And in between all the running around and the baseball and the beer shopping and the battlefield, we managed to watch a BOATLOAD of Family Guy episodes on DVD. We're both Family Guy junkies.

Truly an awesome weekend.

And one final photo, at Tannenbaum Park, the start of your Guilford Courthouse tour, Hoskins Farm includes an item that is held dear to the heart. The farmer whose open fields were near the first line of defense by General Greene's troops actually grew hops. Nice!

North Carolina brewing HISTORY.

One day you'll say that "you knew me when"...

Observe:

A brewery startup is, appropriately enough, starting up by my buddy Sean over in Durham. Everybody's on edge to hear the latest news on a finalized lease and a location and an opening. Following along with the brewery's development, the e-commerce section of Fullsteam is fired up and accepting electronic currency for merchandise.

First item?  A Hogwash! shirt:

Two choices for your brand spankin' new Fullsteam Hogwash! shirt.

Smoke that shirt?

- Naw.

- Yee-Haw!

What?  "Smoke that shirt?"  The explanation:

Announcing the first-ever Fullsteam tees! These aren't your ordinary shirts...our new Hogwash! shirts come HICKORY-SMOKED for that gen-u-swine (oh no I di' in!) smoky smell. We slow-smoke our Hogwash! shirts over hickory wood in the same traditional Carolina smoker used to hickory-smoke our malted barley.

Granted, that trademark smoke smell should fade after a few washes. But, heck...we live in the South! It's not like we wash our clothes that often anyway. Am I right, Yankee Stereotype Guy?

We'll have pictures of the shirt-smoking process in a few days. We're also experimenting with some cutting-edge Internet scratch-and-sniff technology, where you can preview the smell of the shirts simply by touching your computer monitor.*

Don't want to smell like a Carolina pitmaster? You can certainly order a non-smoking shirt...just choose the "naw!" option, and your shirt will smell as fresh as honeysuckle pie.

* In combination with sitting by a campfire for approximately three hours.

Sweet. And this is the email I received today concerning my order:

FLASH!

Thanks for purchasing the first-ever smoked Fullsteam t-shirt! (everyone else to-date has been a lame-o non-smoker). We're smoking a batch this weekend, so I'll ship it to you on Monday!

Take care, and THANKS for the support!
Sean

Chalk another one up for brewery groupie stardom.  Fame falls upon me.

Two nights of AAA baseball: the Columbus Clippers @ the Durham Bulls

Thursday and Friday nights began my yearly excursions to NC minor league baseball parks to watch Cleveland's Little Indians play local teams. I always get such a kick out of seeing Lake County, formerly Buffalo but now Columbus, and Kinston come around for some ballgames. These past two nights saw the AAA Columbus Clippers come to Durham and play the Bulls. Thursday night was a 6-3 Clippers loss, but Friday they came roaring back and spanked the Bulls 14-1. In fact, outfielder Matt LaPorta, acquired in the CC Sabathia trade, was called up to Cleveland immediately after Friday night's game. Cool.

Minor league games are a LOT of fun, and NC has a boatload of teams to choose from. Tickets are insanely cheap, and it gets my fix on because hey, it's professional baseball! It's fun to follow the Indians minor league kids as they work their way up the ladder. It's interesting to see who makes it, which "can't miss" propsects do in fact "miss", and just experience baseball in what I think is a more "pure" form. Anyway, some photos. First from Thursday night and my $8 seats:

And then from Friday and my $10 seats, with some pretty cool postgame fireworks included!

Sip Local

WUNC's local radio program "The State of Things" is a daily look into a particular North Carolina topic. Earlier today at noon, it was a look into local beverages: coffee, tea, wine, and beer. A lot of farmer's markets and locally grown foods are a hot button, but what about the beverages to wash those local foods down with?

Sean Wilson, our Pop the Cap founder and future Fullsteam Brewery proprietor, was an interviewee on today's program. Geez, I can't wait for Fullsteam to open. Distinctly southern beer ingredients for a distinctly southern brewery. Drool...

http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0318ab09.mp3

Enjoy the program.

Morrissey

The Tour of Refusal supporting the newest CD Years of Refusal. Open with the 1983 The Smiths tune This Charming Man, end the 90-minute set with Life is a Pig Sty, and encore with Irish Blood, English Heart. It was a trip to Durham including dinner at Tyler's Taproom beforehand: IPA's followed by the concert; bitter followed by melancholy. Then afterward, a planned stop at Mellow Mushroom was thwarted because it was closed, so back to Tyler's for a nightcap of Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout before the hour drive home. Fantastic concert. Great seats. It was great to finally see him live. And strangely enough I survived without any thoughts of cutting myself or suicide. I am strong that way.

All You Need is Me

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a hop over to Durham for a concert by former The Smiths lead singer Morrissey. A moody evening of mopey, depressing, and dark lyrics set against a backdrop of rather poppy music. Beautifully enigmatic. With my current rollercoaster emotional ride to coincide with recently acquired marital loneliness, it will be the perfect evening to purge the demons...or maybe just exacerbate them into depressing oblivion. Either way it will be a fun night.

The newest single: All You Need Is Me

You hiss and groan and you constantly moan but you don't ever go away
And that's because all you need is me

You roll your eyes up to the skies, mock horrified
But you're still here because all you need is me

There's so much destruction all over the world
And all you can do is complain about me

You bang your head against the wall and say you're sick of it all
Yet you remain 'cause all you need is me

And then you offer your one and only joke and you ask me what will I be
When I grow up to be a man? Me? Nothing!

There's a soft voice singing in your head
Who could this be? I do believe it's me

There's a naked man standing, laughing in your dreams
You know who it is but you don't like what it means

There's so much destruction all over the world
And all you can do is stand there and complain about me

I was a small, fat child in a council house
There was only one thing I ever dreamed about
And Fate has just handed it to me. Whoopee!

You don't like me, but you love me, either way you're wrong
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

World Beer Festival

Saturday October 4th was the date for the annual World Beer Festival over in Durham. Usually the locale is the old Durham Athletic Park, but due to renovations for the minor league baseball museum constructed there, it was moved to the newer Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The DBAP versus the DAP.

A gorgeous day: sunny, bright, and a comfortable 70 degrees. Fantastic for walking around the outfield on a minor league baseball field underneath huge white tents while imbibing 2-ounce samples of beers from around the world.

James and Monica drove down from Alexandria for a family visit, and we incorporated a manly afternoon out for Chris and James to get into whatever trouble they could.

We parked the Jeep at the American Tobacco Complex by 11:00 and stood in line for the 12:00pm gate opening. The entrance was the left field corner, and we arrived along third base pretty darn close to home plate. This year, it went smoothly as they checked ID's and scanned tickets down the line instead of a bottleneck at the entrance. We were inside the ballpark with first beer in hand by 12:15pm. Absolutely unheard of in past years.

We wound our way throughout all three tents, sampled plenty of beer, and met some great people. Gwen, a pourer for Top of the Hill brewpub in Chapel Hill was instantly taken with Chris's Indians jersey as she exclaimed she was from Ohio. James was lost in his beer as these two yammered on and on about being a Cleveland fan and the pain we must suffer. Plus it didn't hurt that she was so easy on the eyes.

The token, required, and mandated Gordonian stop at the Foothills booth resulted in yet another worshipping at the feet of brewer Jamie B. In his imbibing, James was floored by their Total Eclipse Stout, and he returned for repeat samples for that one with ease.

Plenty of really good beers were available, along with some so-so ones that would make you proclaim.....meh. A Croatian lager and a Lithuanian pale ale come to mind. Nice to try, but a 2-ounce sample was all that was needed to realize that a bulk purchase of these beers would not in fact be in our future.

As this festival obviously occurs in NC, it was easy to have local representation of our growing beer scene. Gordonian locals Natty Greene's and Foothills of course, plus Wilmington's Azalea Coast (what was up with all the buttered popcorn flavor in the Black Lure Porter???); Raleigh's Big Boss Brewing (with a yummy Black Diamond Express blackberry Belgian ale); Chapel Hill's Top of the Hill and also Carolina Brewery; Farmville's Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery; High Point's Liberty Brewing; Fayetteville's Mash House (whose Hoppy Hour IPA has severely gone downhill over the years); Durham's Triangle Brewing (and a snappy Xtra Pale Ale); a plethora from Asheville: French Broad Brewing (with a spicy Rye Hopper seasonal beer), old standby Highland Brewing (with a malty and nutty Clawhammer Oktoberfest seasonal), and new on the scene Wedge Brewing (with a fantastic organic Carob Maple Porter).

Best beer of the day? In a discussion and debate, it was decided by James and Chris that it was the Chico Estate Harvest Wet Hop Ale from Sierra Nevada in California. A mere six hours from hops picked on their own farm to enter the brew kettle. Delicious.

Afterward, it was dinner literally across the street from the ballpark at Tyler's Taproom for sandwiches, one final beer (full-sized), and plenty of water. A reuben and a monte cristo for us, with plenty of their succulent garlic fries.

Once we got back to Greensboro, the beery theme continued with the brewing of an imperial stout: Chocolate-Vanilla Imperial Stout to be precise. A beefy wintertime stout that will have cocoa powder and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla added to the secondary fermenter once initial fermentation is complete. We brewed into the night; a peaceful reflective time brewing is, allowing us to unwind and sample some homebrew. We did a side-by-side taste test of Chris's clone of Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. It holds its own. James raves about it, but being Chris's baby he is far more critical and feels it lacks in the coffee aspect that comes through in the real deal. Either way, it was a tasty attempt to copy it. We also chilled a bottle of the Maple Pumpkin Ale, only one week into carbonation out of the required 2 to 3. It was AWESOME. Carbonated already, with plenty of autumnal spicing and a whisper of pumpkin flesh. This is going to be a GOOD one. Next year's batch will be MUCH bigger for October. With all the solids in the brew, Chris netted only 36 bottles out of a usual 48-53. The pumpkin flesh really held onto a lot of liquid in the brew, plus the required three transfers of the beer to clarify it more took its toll on the final volume. 2009's version will make up for that I assure you.

Brewday cleanup was completed at 9:45pm Saturday night. At 4:45am Sunday morning as Kimberly woke up for an overtime shift at work, she took the dogs out and checked the imperial stout. The fermentation was so vigorous and violent it blew the airlock off, splattering the ceiling, the walls, and the toilet. The floor was a mess, the room stunk of beer, and when Chris woke at 9:00am he couldn't be happier to clean up the mess. A frothy foamy fermentation in mere hours! Outstanding. And, there's no stopping it. Chris cleaned up the airlock and the carboy, but the yeasties just want to pop that airlock right back off. We're going to have to let it ferment a day open with a protective layer of froth and gunk to cover the carboy opening. Wow. We'll replace the airlock Sunday night or Monday. Resistance is futile.

Now the big question:
Who's going to help Chris drink all this homebrew? We've got Joe Jackson Tripel and Gordon Lightfoot Porter on the top shelf, then Carolinian Slightly Smoked Porter and Honey Molasses Porter on the bottom shelf. We need to make some room because the currently carbonating Maple Pumpkin Ale has to go in here SOMEWHERE...